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January 2025For a number of decades, the expectation of the imminent end of the world has primarily been the domain of the spiritual. From the fundamental Baptist to the flying-saucer cult, many believe we are living in the end times. With the incessant drum beat of global warming alarmism from the media and schools to Swedish teenagers with “super powers,” now the secular world is learning to expect the end of the world within their own lifetimes. The godless are now sharing in the “fun” of preoccupation, anxiety, and adjusting the timeline for the end, based on world events.
There is a flurry of activity from a small cadre of climate alarmists like “Just Stop Oil” who believe vandalizing priceless artwork and many-millennia-old monuments will raise awareness of the plight of our planet. Hollywood movies portray the “heroic” acts of blowing up a pipeline to “save the world.”
There are no doubt countless others who have instead fallen into a despairing inactivity. There are a number of those consulting their climate prophecy charts that are opting not to have children to spare the little ones a miserable existence and minimize their family’s carbon footprint. Believe it or not, some realtors are offering a climate score for prospective home buyers to spare them the worry of moving to a climate-perilous area.
This gives Christians a rare opportunity for self-reflection. The idiocy of climate alarmism becomes obvious when looking at the “fanatics.” Don’t the “Just Stop Oil” folks realize that wind turbines will not run without oil? But while judging the foibles of the global-warming adherents, will we notice the log in our own eyes? The Christian community has become inactive in similar ways because the end is near.
Christians are reluctant to wage the culture wars because things are supposed to get worse and worse anyway. It’s just a sign that the end is coming any day. When Donald Trump told an audience of Christians that they “wouldn’t have to vote again” after he fixed everything in his next term of office, he was rather intuitive about the Christian community. A recent poll showed that more than 40% of Christians do not vote. From what he had heard, Trump must have believed that Christians would be glad to hear they would never have to vote again if he could twist their arms into making an exception just this one time.
It wasn’t always this way however. Peter Hammond, in his book “The Greatest Century of Missions,” calls the 19th century (1801-1900) the greatest century for Christian mission work. He asserts that the missionaries of the era held an “eschatology of victory.”
Pioneering missionary to Africa, David Livingstone said, “We work for a glorious future which we are not destined to see, the golden age which has not yet been, but will yet be. We are only morning stars shining in the dark, but the glorious morn will break – the good time coming yet.
“The dominion has been given by the power of commerce and population unto the people of the saints of the Most High. This is an everlasting kingdom, a little stone cut out of the mountain without hands which will cover the whole earth. For this time we work.
“By different agencies, the Great Ruler is bringing all things into a focus. Jesus is gathering all things unto Himself and He is daily becoming more and more the centre of the world’s hope and of the world’s fears.”
The first missionary to China, William Carey expressed a similar theme:
“Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on that sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph!”
Hammond contrasts the missionary fervor of the 1800s to Christian advances since and says, “The missionaries of the 19th century went out expecting to change the world, and they did! Most 20th century Christians only expected to save some souls – while the world deteriorated. And it did!”
I have a postmillennial view, an eschatology that lends itself to the philosophy of these trailblazing missionaries. The rise of premillennial eschatology in the 20th century parallels the decline in Christian dominion. I don’t mean to disparage someone’s understanding of Scripture if their eschatology differs from mine, but if their theology has turned them to despair and/or inaction, let me admonish them on that account. Inactivity is not an option for a Christian. Just as the master in the parable of the talents told his servants to “Occupy ‘til I come,” (Luke 19:13, KJV), Jesus expects us to remain active during the wait for His return. The servant in the parable that did not put his talent to use was called “wicked.”
Don’t be susceptible to historical bias. Because things are getting worse in our time does not mean that the end must be near. We are biased if we think that our own time is special and forget that things were much worse in other eras, and God delayed His coming even then. I find it easy to think things will never change, so we all need to remember to continue to fight and expect victory to come when we seek God’s help.
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